Panjab Notifies VB-G RAM G Scheme; Bonded Laborer Rescued

June

2026

In a significant U-turn, the Aam Aadmi Party government in Panjab, which had been opposing the Viksit Bharat Guarantee Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission Gramin (VB-G RAM G) Act, has notified that the rural employment scheme will come into force from 1 Jul in the state. On 30 Dec 2025, the Panjab government had passed a unanimous resolution against the VB-G RAM G Act in the Assembly and accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led union government of ‘taking away’ the livelihood of the poor and Dalit laborers by scrapping the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) under a ‘deliberate conspiracy’. The current notification has sparked sharp reactions, with the Panjab Indian National Congress chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring asking, ‘Does the sudden implementation of the scheme have something to do with the ongoing controversy related to the chief minister,’ referring to the controversy surrounding Panjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann over an allegedly fabricated video. Meanwhile, contrary to the announcement made by CM Mann and his Haryana counterpart Nayab Singh Saini on 27 Jan to hold periodic meetings to resolve the long-standing Sutlej Yamuna Canal (SYL) issue, not a single meeting has taken place in the past five months. In May 2025, the Supreme Court of India had directed the two states to solve the decades-old SYL dispute. Concurrently, the Jalandhar district administration has ordered the withholding of salaries of at least 84 schoolteachers for skipping assigned tasks under the Drug and Socio-Economic Survey undertaken by the state government. The teachers claim that the district administration was penalizing them for refusing duties that were ‘forcibly imposed’ on them without their consent. Concurrently, a Tarn Taran-based charitable society rescued a mentally challenged individual who was trapped as a bonded labor by a family in Tibba village, Sahnewal, Ludhiana district for several months. The victim, 25-year-old Imtehaaz from Bihar, went missing five years ago. Jagjit Singh, president, Dhan Dhan Baba Ratan Dev Ji Charitable Society said, ‘The family had caught him (Imtehaaz) forcibly and were making him perform all daily chores. If he tried to flee their custody, they would catch and punish him. They had been exploiting him and using him as a bonded laborer for the past several months.’ Imtehaaz is undergoing medical treatment now (earlier coverage).